


If I Were to Pluck on Your Heartstrings, Would You Strum on Mine?

by charlesdarwininthetardis



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: And they are adorable, Cecil and Carlos are in high school, Don't say I didn't warn you, High School AU, M/M, and the entire thing is so freaking adorable, and they also get embarrassed really easily, because they aren't going out yet, but then they go to prom together, prom au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 20:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1563005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlesdarwininthetardis/pseuds/charlesdarwininthetardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He reached into his pocket and pulled out two obsidian chips. The white runes painted on them reflected off the fluorescent lights, and they almost seemed to mock him. "You’re going to die anyway, so you may as well go to prom…"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'd Rather Waltz than Just Walk through the Forest

_Cecil Palmer swaggered into the science lab at Night Vale High School. He leaned on the counter across from Carlos, who was, as usual, working on his science experiment, and lazily inspected his fingernails._

_“So, Carlos,” he said with a wry grin on his face, “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”_

_“Oh?”_

_As Carlos looked up from his test tubes, Cecil snapped his fingers and every single chemical in the room exploded at once, the smoke produced forming the word “PROM” in the air. “Will you go to prom with me?”_

_Carlos’s eyes widened with love for his boyfriend. How sweet of Cecil to ask him to prom using his favorite thing in the world: science. “Oh, Cecil, I thought you would never-”_

“Cecil! Cecil! Snap out of it! What has gotten into you?”

As Cecil slowly blinked in shock, his friend Dana came into focus in front of him. Oh, that’s right. He was in the cafeteria planning their next radio project with Dana, not in the science lab with perfect Carlos.

“Sorry, Dana,” Cecil nodded at the black poster over her shoulder. “I just saw the prom poster, and I got a little distracted.”

Dana rolled her eyes. “Distracted is putting it mildly. I thought you had seen a WALK sign for a second.”

“No! No, I- no. I just, _prom,_ right?” he sighed audibly. “I think it would be neat to go to prom this year, and since Carlos is new in town, he should go to prom. And who better to take him than me, right? I’m just not sure if he actually wants to go to prom? He’s probably got science or something and doesn’t want to go.”

Dana reached across the table and grabbed Cecil’s wrists, forcing to look up at her large brown eyes with his deep purple ones. “Cecil. Of course Carlos is going to go to prom with you. He really likes you, and you really like him. Don’t worry about it.”

Cecil smiled cautiously. “You really think so?”

Dana smiled. “Trust me, this girl knows.”

\-----

There had been a new student at Night Vale High School eight months earlier, at the beginning of senior year.

Cecil still remembered sitting in his advanced religious studies class about two weeks into the school year when a new kid with perfect hair and a lab coat walked into the room carrying a leather briefcase.  He spoke to Mr. Wallaby, showed Mr. Wallaby a rune stone, and talked quietly for a moment before Mr. Wallaby raised his voice and addressed the class.

“Students, we have a new student who will be joining us for the remainder of this class, however long that may be, considering time is relative and everything.” Mr. Wallaby rolled his eyes, because he had moved to Night Vale some time ago and still did not understand all of its intricacies.

Mr. Wallaby turned to the student and pointed to the empty desk next to Cecil. “You can have that seat; the person who it belonged to, Melody Parker, got a job interning at the Night Vale Community Radio station, and well, you know how that goes.”

The boy was staring at Mr. Wallaby with a confused look on her face. “No, no I don’t.” The subsequent look that the boy gave his new teacher very clearly said, _‘I’m new here, remember?’_ and could be read from even the back of the room, where Cecil was sitting next to that empty desk.

“Ah! Well, the, ah, hooded figures got to her while she was investigating some news story for Leonard Burton’s radio show. We all miss her very dearly.”

The new student opened his mouth, as if he were about to say something, and then he closed it again, because he decided not to say it. He turned towards his new seat and was stopped by Mr. Wallaby before he could take a single step.

“But, Carlos, before you sit down, would you please introduce yourself?”

\-----

Later that evening, Cecil was in the recording booth for the student-run radio at Night Vale High School. The assignment was to talk about something personal going on in his life because, after all, every good radio host should not be afraid to talk about his personal life on the air. Cecil had only been thinking about one thing all day, and the report just kinda… happened.

 _“Listeners, a new student came to class today._ _Who is he? What does he want from us? Why his perfect and beautiful haircut? Why his perfect and beautiful coat? He says he is going to be a scientist. Well…we have_ _all_ _been and will_ all _be scientists at one point or another in our lives. But why now? Why here?_

_“The new student — he’s named Carlos — spoke in front of the class today. He has a square jaw, and teeth like a military cemetery. His hair is perfect, and we all hate, and despair, and love that perfect hair in equal measure._

_“Carlos told us that, from what he can tell as a science student, we are_ _by far_ _the most scientifically interesting community in the U.S., and he had come to study just what is going on around here. He grinned, and everything about him was perfect, and I fell in love instantly.”_

Cecil paused, and blinked, his face blushing red as he realized what he had just said. For an assignment. On air. In public. He groaned inwardly. There was no use in pretending like he hadn't said it; his teacher had heard everything. He had no choice but continue on. He looked at the papers in front of him; all the words typed there were swimming on the page in front of him, probably because – oh wait. They actually _were_ swimming on the page in front of him.

Well. Cecil couldn’t rely on his notes to help him. He set down his paper and pulled desperately at his memory, trying to find something, _anything_ to talk about to save face.

“Uhh…  in other news, the Night Vale PTA meeting is coming up in less than two months. That is certain to be very interesting…”

\-----

Cecil stood outside the door of the Night Vale High School science lab. He looked at the black poster on the wall, and read the runes written there for the seventeenth time that day: _You’re going to die anyway, so you may as well go to prom._ He took a deep breath and walked in.

He found Carlos doing very professional science inside. He was pouring some chemical into – what was that? A graduated cylinder? A burette? He didn’t know. Actually, what was he doing in the science lab anyway? He didn’t know the difference between a beaker and a Bunsen burner. He was about to just turn around and walk out right then, but  that was when Carlos looked up and saw him.

“Cecil! Hey, I did not expect to see you here. What’s up?” Carlos grinned, and everything about him was perfect. So perfect.

Too perfect.

How could Carlos ever want to go to prom with him? Carlos was perfect, and Cecil was just… Cecil. He messed up on the radio and didn’t even understand science. How could Carlos possibly actually want to go a dance with him?

Carlos raised an eyebrow at Cecil. He hadn’t asked just to ask. He was hoping for an answer.

“I,” Cecil glanced outside and groaned. Next time, next time, he would ask. But not yet. “I was wondering what type of science you were doing. You’ve been very busy lately, and I was curious about what you’ve been working on.”

Carlos peered at Cecil confusedly through his glasses. “I… didn’t know you cared about my experiments.”

“Oh, well,” Cecil smiled. “I’m _very_ into science these days.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Titles taken from the song "Plant life" by Owl City.
> 
> Cecil's radio broadcast is adapted from the transcript for "Welcome to Night Vale," ep. 1 "Pilot," which was written by Joesph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. The transcript came from cecilspeaks.tumblr.com.


	2. Tonight I'm Busting Out of this old Haunted House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He reached into his pocket and pulled out two obsidian chips. The white runes painted on them reflected off the fluorescent lights, and they almost seemed to mock him. "You’re going to die anyway, so you may as well go to prom…"

Carlos was excited for prom.

Very excited.

Like, he was so excited for prom that it was frankly a little embarrassing, because a scientist should not care about _school dances_ ; a scientist should care about _science._

But deep down, he really didn’t care: Carlos was excited about prom, and he knew exactly who he wanted to go with.

Carlos shyly grinned down at his lab equipment as his normally ordered mind got distracted by thoughts of the strange boy he sat next to in advanced religious studies class. The boy who was helping Carlos become more adjusted to all of the idiosyncrasies of Night Vale. The boy who called him perfect.

Actually, the whole “perfect” thing kind of freaked him out a little bit. 

Because Carlos knew he was anything but perfect. He was too obsessed with science, he was always fighting with his hair, and he got really nervous and couldn’t talk around people he liked. Whenever he got nervous, he would hide behind science and throw himself into his experiments, although, now that he thought about it, that didn’t really help matters.

But he wasn’t too focused to not hear when his name was being mentioned.

“What are you saying about me?” Still holding the test tube he was about to pour into his beaker, Carlos raised his eyes from his experiment and looked at Leanne and Ralph, who were talking at the next lab station over from his.

Leann looked startled, as if she didn’t expect Carlos to have heard her. Which was stupid considering only the three of them were in the science lab. She glanced at the prom poster outside in the hall before looking meaningfully at Carlos, “Oh, I was just wondering if you have any plans for prom. You know, everyone has to go.”

“I thought prom was an optional thing?”

“I don’t know where you come from, Carlos, but here in Night Vale, the City Council mandates that everyone who attends Night Vale High School has to attend the prom. It’s just more fun if you have a date.” She flipped her highlighted brown hair and snuggled up to her boyfriend. “Like I have Ralph here. We’re prom king and queen, you know.”

Ralph looked kind of uncomfortable with Leann’s lack of personal space, but Carlos just rolled his eyes. As if he hadn’t heard that Leann and Ralph were going to prom together every day in science class for the past month. Reaching up to remove his safety goggles, he again caught Leann’s expectant stare. He sighed, because he knew he was not going to get out of this one.

“Well, there is someone I would like to go with... There’s just no way they’d want to go with boring old me.” He shrugged and was about to turn away before he caught a glimpse of Leann looking at Ralph out of the corner of his eye. And then he saw her swing her legs over the table and grab her notebook in one seamless motion so that she was sitting on the lab table, ready to take notes. Carlos blinked. Where had those glasses that suddenly appeared on her face come from? They hadn’t been there a second ago.

Carlos sighed. “You can’t put any of this in the paper, Leann. Seriously. Some things are private.”

She smirked at him. “I report what needs to be reported, Carlos. That’s part of my job as head of the school paper. And who you’re going to prom with needs to be reported.” She looked pointedly at Carlos as if that were obvious. “So who are you going to prom with? Is it Dana? Is it Simone? Oh, I know! Pamela!”

“Pamela Winchell?!” Both Carlos and Ralph looked at Leann like she had grown two heads.

Leann shrugged. “What? I thought maybe… you’re both so professional. It could totally work.”

“She’s… she’s… she’s nuts!”  Carlos sputtered. “And she’s so busy, always calling those impromptu conferences of the Night Vale Student Council. And for no reason at all! Besides, everyone says she’s awful to work with; imagine going to prom with her.” He let out an involuntary shudder.

“Okay, maybe not then.” Leann scribbled some notes on her notepad and looked up. “So then who do you have in mind?”

Carlos threw a desperate glance at Ralph, who just shrugged as if to say, _‘You’re not getting out of here until you tell her. And she can sniff out liars. So you might want to tell the truth. Just maybe.’_

He looked back at Leann, who was peering at him through her glasses, a look that served magnify her green eyes to about 10 times their normal size. The overall effect was kind of eerie, but it was nothing eerier than anything else he has seen in this insane town.

He threw up his hands. “Fine! It’s Cecil! Happy?”

Now it was Leann’s turn to stare open-mouthed. “Cecil… Palmer? You… like him? I mean, I’ve heard his radio show, but I didn’t know…” She trailed off as she realized that Carlos was not messing with her, but was, in fact, turning bright red. Slowly, she began to smile and nod. “Yeah, I could totally see that. Oh, Carlos, you two would be so cute together!”

“Wait, really?”

She shrugged nonchalantly as she climbed off the table. “Yeah… the scientist and the radio host. There’s something, I don’t know, charming about that.” She grabbed her bag and walked out of the room, Ralph following her. She stopped right before she stepped into the hallway. “Besides, you know he’s head over heel in love with you, right, Carlos?”

\-----

Carlos was well aware that Cecil was in love with him.

He learned that after he had called Cecil for help with religious studies back in February. All Carlos expected was to verify with Cecil that the textbook was wrong. He did not expect to hear Cecil gush about him on the schoolwide radio station the next day.

He was cleaning up a science experiment at lunch with the radio on. He hadn’t had a habit of listening to the radio, or any music, really, before he had moved to Night Vale, but that habit had changed rather quickly after Dana had mentioned that (a) Night Vale High School had a student-run radio, and (b) she and Cecil often had to report on there for class.

And, well, Cecil’s _extremely_ sonorous voice may or may not have also served as an impetus for Carlos to start listening to the radio.

Carlos was putting some chemicals away in the storage room while Cecil was going on about some mandate by the administration about cheating and how that would _definitely_ get you in trouble with the hooded figures and _might_ end with a visit from a vague, yet menacing, government agency. But then, the story on the radio changed.

_“Listeners, guess who called me last night. Well, hey, I don’t like to talk too much about my personal life here (unless it’s for an assignment, then I can’t really do anything about that.) This is _your_  high school news station, not  _Cecil’s Personal Life Station_ , right?_

_“Okay, fine. I’ll just say it:_ _♫_ _Carlos!_ _♫_

_“Carlos, the perfect, dark-skinned science student who came into our little school and our littler hearts several months ago.”_

Carlos slowly set down the zinc chlorate he was carrying and stared at the radio.

_“Well, I gave him my home phone number quite a while back, and he never called, and I didn’t think anything of it, right? I mean, sometimes people just _don’t call_ , and that’s okay. Well, to the point:_

_"Carlos calls, and I’m like, ‘Hello?’ Like, I don’t even have caller ID!_

_“And he’s like ‘I need to talk to you. This is important’._

_"And I’m like, ‘Umm, OK.’_

_“I mean, that’s pretty _forward_ , right, listeners? But I can’t tell exactly what he wants yet._

_"And he said ‘Cecil.’ Just the _sound_  of his caramel voice! So perfect!”_

Carlos’s mouth dropped open. Caramel voice? _Him?_ What on earth had gotten into Cecil?

_“‘ _Cecil_ ,’ he says. ‘Cecil. I think the religious studies textbook is wrong.’ And then I said, after a slow sip of orange juice, ‘Oh?’_

_“And perfect Carlos said, ‘Yes. The textbook said that Confucianism and Daoism are both the exact same, and the terms could be used interchangeably. And that’s wrong. Cecil, although both religions were founded in China during the Period of Warring States, they could not be more different!’_

_‘Uh huh? Go on…’ I said, trying to sound like someone with a normal pulse whose palms were_ _not_ _sweating.”_

Carlos was blushing rather profusely at this point, and his palms were _not_ sweating. Subconsciously, he prayed that no one, especially not Leann, walked in on him right now.

_"’Well, I looked online, and everything I found agreed with me. Confucianism and Taoism are completely different. The Tao in Confucianism is sort of a, um, moral behavior to follow in life, but in Daoism, it is merely a natural force that should not be interfered with. And their guidelines for living life are different, too. Cecil, while one calls for actively striving to be noble, the other calls for quiet submission. The textbook is wrong. I, I don’t understand, Cecil.’_

_“So that’s what Carlos said! Listeners, what do you think? I feel like we are so similar, but we are also different, Carlos and I. Is _that_  what he’s trying to say? I feel that way too!’_

_"_ _But I didn’t say it, I just said, ohh, this is bad…I just said, ‘Neat!’_

_“Ugh! How embarrassing!_

_“I mean, Carlos is _so_  smart, and he says  _so_  many smart things! And I’m not dumb! I like science and municipally-approved books just as much as the next guy, so I can’t  _believe_  that’s all I could say to him._

_"Neat!"_

Carlos was by this point grinning like an idiot. He turned away from the radio to regain a semblance of privacy and leaned back on the counter. By science, Cecil Palmer liked him! Cecil, the guy who knew literally everybody. Cecil, one of the most popular boys in school. And Carlos, that weird nerd who’s obsessed with science. Carlos, that quiet kid who is insecure and scared to speak in public. And Cecil liked him? Bright red at this point, but grinning profusely and laughing giddily, Carlos got back to work on his experiments while keeping his ear tuned to the radio.

 _“But…I did manage to ask if he wanted to get together sometime, and talk some more about this really fascinating subject. He said no… but he _needed_  me ask if anyone else knew about any errors in the textbook, so that’s what I’m doing now. Anything for the scientific community; I’m _very _into science these days!_

_“Wow! Can you believe he called _me_?”_

_\-----_

Carlos stood outside the doors to the Night Vale Community Radio Station, where he knew he would find Cecil this time of day. Cecil had recently gotten a paid job working at the radio station, one step above an intern. Apparently that had ended rather badly a couple of years ago, but Carlos had never pressed Cecil for the details. All anyone would tell him was that Cecil had been attacked, and he hadn’t been the same since.

After the incident, the station management let him go, but if anything, Cecil was even more obsessed with working at the Night Vale Community Radio Station. This might have also had something to do with the inscriptions on the stone tablets at City Hall that said he was going to be the announcer for Night Vale Community Radio one day. So, he took the radio class at school as a back-up so he could still learn what he needed to know about being a good radio announcer even if the radio station wouldn't hire him.

But a couple of months ago, the station management realized it really couldn’t fight with fate, so they really had no choice but to hire him again. Carlos had noticed a particular hop on Cecil’s step for three weeks after he got the call that he would be returning to Night Vale Community Radio at a level above an intern, and Carlos was hopeful that maybe this time Cecil wouldn’t have to constantly fear impending doom via mirror, whatever that was about.

Carlos looked up at the red blinking light at the top of the radio tower behind the station, took a deep breath, and walked inside. He had to wait in line behind a strange man in a tan jacket and a man of apparently Slavic origin who was dressed in a ridiculously large and inaccurate Indian headdress who called himself the Apache Tracker. Carlos smiled because Apache Tracker only made him think of Cecil and his accusations about how this man was a racist jerk.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out two obsidian chips. The white runes painted on them reflected off the fluorescent lights, and they almost seemed to mock him. _You’re going to die anyway, so you may as well go to prom…_

“Can I help you?” The face of the friendly intern behind the rather large and imposing front desk smiled down at him.

Carlos looked up, startled out of his thoughts. “Um, yes. Yes, you can, actually. Uh, help me. Yes.” He squinted, reading the name on her nametag. “Monica. Um, can I have a visitor’s tag? My name is Carlos. They should be expecting me.”

Monica grinned and rolled her eyes. “Oh, we know who you are. Cecil only talks about you _all the time_.” She grabbed a blank visitor’s badge and a purple Crayola marker and began filling it out for Carlos, who was just staring dumbfounded at the marker moving across the page.

“You can use those here? I, mean, with the ban on pens and pencils… I haven’t been able to find anything decent to write with since I came here.”

Monica smirked and held to marker aloft at Carlos. “But it’s not a pencil or pen: It’s a marker. The ban said nothing about those.” She held the badge up for Carlos to grab. “Here’s the badge. You can go on back.” Carlos thanked her and turned way, but as he was leaving, he heard her call out to him. “Good luck!”

Making sure Cecil did not see him, Carlos waited outside Leonard Burton’s recording studio until he heard him announce the weather. Once the song started playing, something about plants and haunted houses, Carlos knocked and went inside.

Startled, Leonard looked up from scribbling notes on his script as Carlos walked in. “What are you doing in my studio? Do you not see the sign? We are _on air-_ ” his gaze caught the name tag pinned on Carlos’s shirt, and his lizardlike purple lips widened into a smile. “Ah, so you’re Carlos! We spoke earlier. It’s nice to meet you. Sit down, sit down. We’ll get started as soon as I find- ah!”

Leonard spied an old rolling chair in the corner of the booth. As he moved the stacks of paper from the chair to the floor, they immediately started to scream until Leonard kicked them and screamed at them to shut up. Smiling apologetically at Carlos, he rolled over the chair, and Carlos sat down.

“So, you’re sure you want to do this right now? We’re not on air or anything. It seems like weird timing.” Leonard was looking curiously at Carlos, who shook his head quickly.

“No. I mean, yes. Yes, I want to do this now. Just record the interview and play it again when you get back on the air. I’ve planned this out, as a scientist does, and I want to be somewhere else when this actually plays.”

Leonard nodded at Carlos and turned on the extra microphone in the booth. “Well, if you’re sure, let’s go ahead and get started.”

\-----

Carlos knocked on the open door of the monitoring room at Night Vale Community Radio. Cecil, focused on the sounds of the radio coming from the speaker, looked up, startled. When he saw Carlos standing at the doorway, nervously grinning, he gestured him inside.

“Carlos!” Cecil whispered, “what are you doing here? I didn’t know you were interested in radio.”

Carlos chuckled. “Cecil, I thought you knew: I’m _very_ into radio these days.” Seeing that Cecil did not understand what Carlos was hinting at, he shook his head and said, “No, but seriously. I just wanted to listen to the radio. And this is the radio, and you’re my friend, soo…,” he trailed off, because he wasn’t really sure where he was going with that line of babbling. But he knew that Cecil would accept that explanation, so he really didn’t worry about it. “But, you need to get back to work. I think the weather’s ending.”

Cecil nodded and very seriously turned back to his sound board. He had heard stranger things, both in Night Vale and from Carlos; this was one of his more normal statements.

_“Citizens, as we all know here in Night Vale, prom season is just around the corner for our high school students.”_

_“The City Council has made it mandatory for all high school students to attend the prom, but that in no way means that the students can’t have fun with it! We here at Night Vale Community Radio took the opportunity to talk to a couple of students at Night Vale High School about their plans for this very exciting time. Cecil, if you would please play sound clip 1.”_

Cecil looked panicked at Carlos. “I… I don’t have sound clip 1. I don’t have any sound clips. What does he want me to do?”

Carlos’s eyes widened as he remembered something. He grabbed a record Leonard had given him as he walked out of the studio. “Um, Leonard told me to give this to you. Is this it?”

Looking at the record, Cecil sighed with relief. “Yes. Thank you, Carlos. He put the record on the record player and hooked it up to the sound system. Leonard’s voice, all high pitched and grating like sandpaper, came out of the speaker.

_“Citizens, I am here with one of Night Vale High School’s newest resident to talk about prom. Carlos the science student, it’s great to have you here with me in the recording studio today.”_

_“It’s nice to be here, Leonard. Thank you for having me.”_

Cecil stared at Carlos, an expression of shock on his face. _‘WHAT?’_ he mouthed at Carlos, who only grinned and gestured for Cecil to keep listening.

 _“So, Carlos. You’re going to the prom this year, is that right?”_ Leonard asked.

 _“Um, yeah, I am.”_ Carlos paused. _“I believe I’ve heard it’s mandatory to attend.”_

“ _Right you are, young Carlos! Right you are. But, are you looking forward to it?”_

 _“Yeah, I am. This prom looks to be way different from the proms at my old school, but you know. New school, new prom, right?”_ He laughed uncomfortably.

 _“Indeed, young Carlos, Indeed. But do you have any special plans for this prom? Any special someone you’re going with?”_ Leonard asked curiously. Carlos had blushed profusely then, thankful that he was in a radio booth and not on a television screen. And Carlos still blushed profusely now, grateful that the room they were in was dark and that Cecil couldn't see him.

_“Actually, now that you mention it, Leonard, I am planning on going to prom with someone special.”_

At this, Cecil just turned to Carlos, looking so hurt that one might have thought that his heart had been ripped out. Carlos just smiled slyly and waved at him to keep listening.

 _“Really, Carlos? Care to elaborate? I’m sure we all in Night Vale want to hear about the exploits Night Vale’s newest science student.”_ Leonard had put his voice supportively on Carlos’s shoulder as he lowered his voice to a kind murmur. _“We’re all rooting for you, ya know.”_

“ _Actually, Leonard, I can’t elaborate. You see, I haven’t actually asked him yet. But I’m going to change that right now.”_ As the Carlos in the recording took a deep breath, the Carlos that was sitting next to Cecil reached into his pockets and pulled out the two black obsidian chips.

_“Cecil Gershwin Palmer. Will you go to prom with me?”_

Cecil whirled around and looked at Carlos, who was holding the two black obsidian chips up in front of his face, bright red and grinning for all the world.

“YES!” Cecil cried as he knocked Carlos out of his chair with a giant bear hug. “Yes! That would be _neat_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Titles come from Owl City's song, "Plant Life."
> 
> Cecil's radio broadcast is adapted from the transcript for "Welcome to Night Vale," ep. 16 "the Phone Call," which was written by Joesph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. The transcript came from cecilspeaks.tumblr.com.


	3. Even So, I Don't Know What to Think

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He reached into his pocket and pulled out two obsidian chips. The white runes painted on them reflected off the fluorescent lights, and they almost seemed to mock him. "You’re going to die anyway, so you may as well go to prom…"

Cecil fidgeted as he waited for the door to open. It was prom night, and he was nervous.

No, not nervous. Terrified.

He wanted to make this night perfect for his perfect Carlos, but well, he knew how things in Night Vale go. There was sure to be some incident with a five-headed dragon eating someone or a glow cloud raining dead animal carcasses down on everyone. But it didn’t hurt to hope, right?

He pulled on the sleeve of his dark purple tunic for the sake of doing something with his hands. He was wearing his very best tunic and furry pants. He was pretty proud of the pants actually; they were the galaxy printed ones he got from VOID Market last week just for prom. But even though he thought he looked handsome, some deep part of him still wondered if he were dressed right.

He was pulled out of his concerned reverie by the sound of Carlos’s front door opening in response to Cecil having pressed the doorbell a second ago. A stern-looking Mexican woman eyed him warily from behind the heavy lead door. Her stare seemed to bore through Cecil’s soul.

“Yes?” She sounded extremely annoyed.

He cleared his throat. “Oh! Um, hello, Mrs. Marron. It’s nice to meet you. I am Cecil Palmer, and is Carlos home? We are supposed to go to prom tonight, and I was supposed to pick him up, so we can, um, go to prom.” He gestured uselessly at the tandem bike parked in the driveway behind him.

She looked at him for a moment more and grunted in disgust at him. She turned away from the door just as Carlos hurriedly ran down the steps into the front hall. His face broke into a giant grin when he saw his date standing there.

“Cecil! I’m so glad you’re here!” He noticed his mother standing there, unamused, as he came to a stop behind her. He looked between Cecil, who looked like he was about to throw up, and his mother, who looked like she would rather be anywhere else than in the front hall with her son and his prom date, and tried to decide how best to remedy the situation. He decided on the basic solution. “Mother, I see you’ve met Cecil. Cecil, this is my mother.”

Cecil just stood there in the door, looking confusedly at Carlos, who could see that Cecil didn’t know what to do next. Carlos leaned next to Cecil and whispered in his ear, “Shake her hand.”

Cecil looked like he had just achieved spiritual enlightenment and grabbed Carlos’s mothers arm with both of his hands and… shook it. Very hard.  He smiled at Carlos, who was at this point trying very hard not to laugh.

Carlos’ mom just glanced at her son as if to say, ‘ _Who_ is _this boy_?’ He just laughed and kissed her on the cheek. As he walked out the door hanging on Cecil’s arm, he called, “Love you mom. I’ll be home soon.”

When they reached the tandem bike in Carlos’s driveway, they looked at each other. Cecil’s breath caught. He had been too focused on trying to survive his encounter with Carlos’s mother to focus on Carlos’s appearance, but now that he had time to look at him closely, he realized one very important thing: Carlos looked _perfect_. His fancy lab coat fit him flatteringly, his black shirt complemented his perfect hair nicely, and his galaxy print tie matched Cecil’s pants perfectly. The bright red blush on his face, however, stood out very strongly from his outfit, but in Cecil’s opinion, it served to make him look even more perfect.

“Sorry about that, Cecil. My mother has been kind of like that ever since we moved here. Nothing against you, I’m sure. I think she just doesn’t like it here.” He absentmindedly ran a hand through his hair, a habit he had for when he was nervous. He looked up and flashed a grin at Cecil. “But, _prom,_ right? This is gonna be so great, Cecil. I mean, uh, scientifically speaking of course. Prom equals greatness. It’s a scientific fact.”

With unabashed love in his eyes, Cecil looked at Carlos and smiled.  “I love it when you talk science,” he whispered. And he gave Carlos a quick kiss on the cheek before he climbed onto the front seat of the tandem bike.

What he did not see was the even redder blush and small smile slowly spreading across Carlos’s face as they rode away into the city.

\-----

One day after school, about a month before prom, Cecil had joined Carlos in the science lab after school to hang out and make prom plans.

“So, logically, we could get dinner at Big Rico’s beforehand; the City Council _does_ mandate that every citizen has to have one slice a week, so this would be a good excuse to have that pizza.” Carlos was saying as he worked on an extremely complex titration: weak acid with weak base.

Cecil looked up from his math homework. “Carlos! You don’t have _pizza_ on _prom_ _night_! It’s a special occasion! We need to go to Gino’s Italian Dining Experience and Grill and Bar. It’s the fanciest restaurant in town and is the only appropriate place for dinner on prom night.”

Carlos could see that Cecil had been thinking about this for a while, even though Carlos had only asked him out about a week and a half ago. Or was it just a week ago? He couldn’t tell; time wasn’t real in Night Vale anyways, so what was even the point of trying to keep track? However, there was one obvious flaw in Cecil’s logic that Carlos couldn’t believe he forgot.

“Sure, Gino’s would be fine, but what about the ban on wheat and wheat by-products? It’s an Italian restaurant: I would think they’d have been hit the worst hit out of anyone in town with the wheat and wheat by-products incident, what with all the snakes and supernatural spirits everywhere. Even if they’ve recovered from that damage, how are they going to get around not being able to use wheat to make their pizza or their pasta? What do they serve?”

Cecil laughed. “Sure, you can’t get that stuff, Carlos, but you can still get their signature dish. They serve the best rare and bloody Portobello mushrooms in Night Vale.”

Carlos paused. “I’m supposed to eat rare and bloody Portobello mushrooms for dinner? Mushrooms don’t even _have_ blood!”

“Mushroom.” Cecil corrected.

“Mushroom?”

“Yes. One mushroom. You said mushrooms, plural.”

“You expect me to get full off of one Portobello mushroom?”

“It’s not necessarily getting full off of the mushroom; it’s the atmosphere and experience of the thing.” Cecil said eloquently.

Carlos could see that Cecil was not going to let this idea go. “Fine,” he shrugged. “We’ll go to Gino’s.” he checked to make sure the indicator in the weak acid he was titrating had not changed color yet before turning back to Cecil, who was suddenly looking nervous.

“Okay, Carlos, but now that that’s settled, I have, a erm, problem. You see, I don’t know how to …” His volume lowered as he mumbled under his breath.

“What?”

More frustrated muttering.

“Cecil,” Carlos came round the table, grabbed Cecil’s shoulder, and knelt so he was looking at Cecil eye-to-eye. “What is it?”

“I don’t know how to dance, Carlos! I’m seventeen, and I don’t know how to dance! I mean, I know all the Night Vale folk dances, but those aren’t really romantic or helpful for prom.” 

“Is that all?”

Cecil nodded unhappily.

Carlos laughed warmly. “Cecil, that’s nothing. You don’t actually have to dance at prom. But, I did take dancing classes back at my old school, and I can teach you how to dance, if you’d like.”

“Really, Carlos? You’d do that for me?” Cecil looked at the science student with pure joy.

“Sure, Cecil.” He glanced back at his titration. It hadn’t changed color yet, but that was okay. This wasn’t really working for him, and he could try again tomorrow, if he had to. “Just move these desks so we have space to practice, okay? I’ll clean up this experiment.”

Moving the desks took considerably longer than cleaning up the lab station, but Carlos used the extra time to find the perfect song on his phone for practicing dancing. He hooked it up to the speaker and pressed play before going to stand in front of Cecil, whose face betrayed his conflicting emotions of joy and fear over learning how to dance. “Carlos, what if I’m horrible at dancing?” he whispered.

“You’ll be great; Cecil. I just know it. Besides, dancing is easy if you just follow the lead. And considering you’re learning, I’ll lead. Put your left hand on my shoulder and I will hold your right. Step forward with you left foot and I step back with my right, so we move in unison. Does that make sense?”

Cecil nodded.

“Alright, ready to begin?”

Cecil took a deep breath and smiled.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Just follow my lead.”

\-----

They arrived at the prom a few minutes after it started. While waiting in line to get in, Cecil peered around the mob of people to get a glimpse into the prom. Sure, he had gone last year as a reporter for the school radio station, but he did not have a perfect scientist boyfriend accompanying him, so everything was different this year. There were some sad-looking purple balloons and streamers hanging around the walls of the gym, but that didn’t matter because the music was loud and the speakers by the DJ station throbbed with life. The Glow Cloud was DJ-ing this year so the school board could save money because there was no need for strobe lights.

Old woman Josie was chaperoning, and so were all of the angels who live with her, even though they do not exist. Josie caught Cecil’s eye and waved. Cecil waved back; apart from Carlos, Josie was quite possibly Cecil’s favorite person in Night Vale. Also chaperoning were the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home and Hiram McDaniels, who is literally a five-headed dragon. 

Carlos nudged him, and Cecil realized that they were now in the front of the line. He handed over his obsidian prom ticket to Mr. Wallaby, who was accepting the tickets. Mr. Wallaby snapped the chip in two, gave half of it to Cecil, and kept half for himself. Cecil looked at the ticket to see the runes were broken off so that they now just read, “ _You’re going to die anyway.”_

Mr. Wallaby did the same to Carlos’s ticket, whose ticket now read, “s _o you may as well go to prom.”_ When he got his back, he compared it to Cecil’s and found that their two halves fit together perfectly to make one whole ticket.

They walked inside the gym to the prom. They said hello to Ralph and Leann, who looked even more gorgeous than usual. She glanced at Cecil and knowingly raised an eyebrow at Carlos. Dana was in the corner of the gym, taking notes on the prom for Monday’s broadcast of the Night Vale High School Radio. She glanced up, saw the guys, and flashed Cecil a thumbs-up. She looked rather bored, so Cecil waved her over so they could say hello.

“So, how’s the prom?” She screamed over the loud music.

“Fine!” Shouted Cecil. “Actually, it’s more than fine!” he added as he threw a radiant smile over in Carlos’s direction, who was only half paying attention to their conversation. He was looking around and was taking notes in his lab notebook “This is just a normal prom. It’s too normal. What is going on?” he muttered frantically as he looked around the gym and scribbled down data.

Cecil looked back at Dana, who was still screaming, “The music is too loud, and frankly, it’s kind of awful. Who wants to listen to rap at prom? And it’s not like we can do anything about it, because everyone who goes up to the DJ booth comes back ‘all hailing the Glow Cloud.’” Cecil had to agree with her about the music; the weather they played on Night Vale Community radio was much better and more suited to prom than this. And even he knew that music was horrible for prom, so that was saying something.

Dana gave a visual sigh and shouted, “I’m going to take more notes. Over there. In the corner. This prom is sooo fun.” She rolled her eyes. “You know, it would be better if something _interesting_ were happening!” 

As she walked away, Cecil silently prayed again for nothing strange to happen because he didn’t want to ruin his perfect night. He grabbed Carlos’s hand and dragged him over to the punch line to go get something to drink.

While they were in line, Claire Wallace, the yearbook photographer, ran up to them, waving her camera.

“Cecil!” she cried, as she stopped, breathing heavily, in front of the boys. “Can… I… take a picture…  of you and your boyfriend… for the school yearbook?” She flashed her signature thousand-watt smile at them. “You _are_ the cutest couple at Night Vale High School!”

Carlos looked like he was about to say something, then he closed his mouth. Then, apparently deciding that he was going to say it after all, asked, “Us? Cute? But what about Leann and Ralph?” They were far enough from the speakers that they could speak at a normal volume.

Claire snorted. “Please. Leann hasn’t been talking about her crush on Ralph on the radio for the past 9 months.” She stopped as she saw Cecil’s face go from its normal pale white to bright red in 2.9 seconds. “Oh, sorry, was I not supposed to mention that? Does he not know?”

As Carlos laughed and shook his head, Claire calmed down and continued. “Okay, good, as long as I didn’t spill some giant secret. I know I babble a lot sometimes, but…” She laughed in an effort to fill the awkward silence. “But seriously, you two are the couple that literally everyone in the school wants to be together. And here you are! Together! So, can I have that picture?”

“Sure, Claire! Smile, Cecil.” Carlos pulled Cecil in for a hug and smiled as she flashed the picture.

“Thanks, guys. This will go front and center on the prom page. See you later.” As she turned to go, she saw Cecil look like he was deciding whether to say something. She nodded at him. “And, Cecil, I’ll send you a copy once I get it developed.” Cecil’s face nodded and smiled. That was exactly what he wanted to ask.

Overall though, the prom was uneventful. They saw friends and complimented them on how great they looked. They danced to rap music, and it was overall a pleasant time. Boring, but pleasant.

But as they were getting their second drink of punch, a giant black hole opened up in the ceiling.

Cecil just stared forlornly up at it as the wind around him started to pick up. He had been _this_ close to having a perfect night with Carlos with nothing strange happening and messing it up. But now, there was a black hole making a mess of everything and dragging people up into the void. He looked down in despair because nothing ever worked perfectly for him, not even prom night. He wanted _so badly_ to have a perfect first date to impress Carlos, and that had failed miserably.

Suddenly, he heard music that was very different from the rap music the wind had drowned out. And it seemed to be coming from the black hole. He could just barely make up the lyrics above the roaring wind: “ _Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you...”_ The students who were not holding on to their dates in a valiant, but futile, effort to escape being sucked into the void gave out a cheer and started dancing.

He looked over to see what the chaperones were doing to fix this. Old Woman Josie was just knitting and not paying attention to anything around her. The angels had decided stop existing for a while, and the Faceless Old Woman and Hiram McDaniels were gone, presumably together. Everyone knew that they had a secret affair going on, even though they were opposing candidates in the upcoming mayoral election and they vehemently denied any romantic  attraction.

So, the chaperones weren’t going to be much help.

He looked at Carlos, who had by now stopped looking at the black hole in shock and was now scribbling madly in his lab notebook, his perfect black locks flying around his face. He looked up and made eye contact with Cecil.

“Cecil, I have to fix this. With science. I’ll be right back.”

“You’re so brave, Carlos. But, be careful.”

Carlos nodded and walked away, all the while muttering something about being rickrolled under his breath.

\-----

Carlos was able to use super complicated science to get rid of the black hole and fix prom.

And that super-complicated science consisted of turning a lever in the boiler room labelled BLACK HOLE IN GYM to the “off” position. Science, right?

He returned to the gym and found it to be a mess. Tables, napkins, and punch cups were strewn everywhere, and everyone was standing around, blinking dazedly at the sudden lack of wind and 80’s dance music.

Cecil saw him and ran to him. “Carlos! You’re okay! Oh, thank the gods!”

Carlos smiled and kissed Cecil on the nose. “Yes, I’m okay. I managed to save the day with my, um, very extensive knowledge of science.”

They stood there for a moment, smiling lovingly at each other until Cecil broke the silence. “Thank you for taking me to prom, Carlos. I hope you had a good time, but now, I guess,” he broke off and gestured to the very lifeless party around them, “It’s over-”

That was the moment Dana chose to leap up to the DJ-booth. “Hey there, Night Vale, having a good time?” she cried, her voice loud in the silence. Everyone turned to look at this weird freshman who had decided to hijack the DJ booth.

“Well, although that was unexpected,” she glanced toward the ceiling, “It was certainly interesting. Hey, what are you all doing standing around? It’s prom night! We’re at prom, and it’s like they say, ‘You’re gonna die anyway, so you might as well enjoy your prom!’ right?”

To the sound of the cheers of the student body, she put on a record and a song began to play.

Carlos turned to Cecil, and grinned. “Cecil Gershwin Palmer. May I have this dance?”

And they danced, because although time is not real and beyond them was the endless sand, and beyond that was the even more endless void, they were here, together, for now.

_I’d rather waltz than just walk through the forest,_

_The trees keep the tempo as they sway in time,_

_A quartet of crickets chime in for the chorus,_

_If I were to pluck on your heartstrings, would you strum on mine?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lyrics taken from the song "Never Gonna Give you Up" by Rick Astley and "Plant Life" by Owl City. Titles are also taken from "Plant Life."
> 
> The idea for the clothing store "VOID Market" was inspired by ladylos on Tumblr with this post: http://ladylos.tumblr.com/post/75910021837/i-feel-like-night-vale-has-a-version-of-pink
> 
> The idea for the black hole in the gym came from 221-cuppa-tea on Tumblr.
> 
> The audio inspiration for the black hole in the gym came from daftpheonix and princeloptr on Tumblr with this post: http://daftphoenix.tumblr.com/post/81421602451

**Author's Note:**

> This is my contest entry for NGNEHS's Prom AU writing contest.
> 
> Thank you so much to emotionalcorn and 221-cuppa-tea on Tumblr for being so supportive of me while I wrote this! thank you to emotionalcorn for reading this as soon as I sent her finished chapters, and thank you to 221-cuppa-tea for listening as I endlessly talked to her about my ideas for this. Thanks guys, it means a lot :)


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